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| Pakistan links trade to progress on Kashmir | | |
NEW DELHI, APR 3
Pakistan today spoke of forward movement in the Indo-Pak dialogue process but linked free trade with India to progress on the "core" issue of Kashmir.
"Trust deficit is reducing. We need to work together to reduce it further... We want to make it zero," Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in an interaction with senior editors here.
Aziz, here for the SAARC Summit, told a questioner during the hour-long interaction mostly covering bilateral ties, that "trade is linked to progress on Kashmir."
The Pakistan Prime Minister's comments came in the backdrop of his country's refusal to implement South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) in relation to India, an issue that has been discussed in bilateral talks since last year.
As for the dialogue on Kashmir and other issues, Aziz said it was moving forward and the two countries are engaged in "public and not in public".
However, he refused to quantify the progress when asked to give a sense of the forward movement on the dialogue process.
"We are getting there... Things are moving. It is a process. We are moving step by step," he said.
Aziz repeatedly described Kashmir as the "core" issue, which needed to be resolved as per the wishes and aspirations of people of the state.
Asked who, in his view, represented the people of Jammu and Kashmir, he refused to get into specifics of "who represents Kashmiris".
Besides Indo-Pak ties, Aziz faced a volley of questions on terrorism, suspension of the Supreme Court Chief Justice, troubled relationship with Afghanistan, President Pervez Musharraf's refusal to shed the uniform and Pakistan-US ties.
On Kashmir, Aziz said several proposals, including joint control, self governance and joint consultative mechanism, were being discussed. The discussions also cover Siachen, Sir Creek and other issues and the "trust deficit is reducing".
"Kashmir is the major part of discussions we are having," he said, adding Pakistan believed that resolving the issue would improve overall atmosphere. Terming Kashmir as a "key dispute", he said dispute resolution was important for a sustainable, expanded relationship between New Delhi and Islamabad.
"Kashmir is the core issue. People may not like us to say this. But that is the reality," Aziz said. He emphasised that the focus should now be less on the process and more on the end result. "There is more interaction, the level of comfort is higher, disputes talked about and people are travelling more frequently".
He said business and trade relations between the two countries were also growing and referred to expansion of 'positive list' of items for trade with India recently.
On Pakistan's objection to having a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) at SAARC level to tackle terrorism, he said "I think, these treaties are bilateral matters and are best handled bilaterally." He repeated Pakistan's well-known position that terrorism in Kashmir was due to "lack of dispute resolution" in addressing the "root cause".
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